…until the well runs dry. Yep, that’s one of the many proverbs I learnt way back in the days when my English classes had mandatory segments for reciting proverbs, phrasal verbs, similes and such. Good thing too, otherwise I may have had to really rack my brain for a title for today’s post :-). So here’s me feeling sheepish about being an ingrate: Continue reading →

I have never seen as much rain in my life as I’ve seen fall in the last month. It has rained almost every day (and night) since early November. The dry days have bee few and far between. The sunny days have been a mockery—temperatures haven’t edged over 15° since October. The Tiber river was expected to overflow its banks within the Rome city centre this evening. Yesterday, it already burst its banks upriver.

The river’s famous bridges are looking frighteningly close to the water:

A bridge on the Tiber: Photo by adelegiorgia

The Tiberine Island is not looking too good either:

Tiberine Island flooded: Photo by Zingaro

The Tiber’s main tributary, the Aniene hasn’t been left out of the party:

Tazio bridge on River Aniene: Photo by carlobusi

And there is no end in sight to all this rain—at least not in the near future. Oh, help!

Update 13 Nov: The much-anticipated overflowing of the Tiber in the historic centre never occurred, much to the disappointment of all those concerned citizens, who, in defiance of the mayor’s orders to stay home, lined up on the banks of the river armed with cameras and camcorders like paparazzi trying to catch that winning shot of the wayward celebrity in trouble. The situation is stable, but the high-alert state isn’t over yet.

The concluding section of the book is about how the influence of the cross spreads outwards until it pervades the whole of Christian faith and life. We cannot do away with the cross in our thinking and living. Stott examines the book of Galatians which is one of the first, if not the first, of Paul’s letters. It contains seven assertions about the death of Jesus, each of which highlights a different facet of it. When put together, they give a comprehensive view of the influence of the cross.

The Pervasive Influence of the Cross

1. The cross and salvation (1:3–5)

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.Continue reading →

On one of my random forays around the Internet, I did the What font are you? quiz. Turns out I am Andale Mono. This is the assessment I received:

You are a geek, pure and simple. You spend a lot of time online.
In fact, you probably love the internet more than anyone you know.
You are picky about design, mostly for readability’s sake.
You are the type most likely to be irritated by a bad font.

Me, a geek? I’m more geeky than some people I know and way less geeky than others. Depends on where you draw the geek line. I love the internet? Possibly. One of my pastimes is standards-based web design. Picky about design? Oh yes. Been thinking about redesigning my church’s bulletin and visitors’ cards—don’t tell my pastor. Irritated by a bad font? More like irritated by the inappropriate use of fonts (the right font in the right place!)

Peace-making isn’t one-sided. It may at times prove impossible to live in peace.

We are called to mirror our Father’s peace-making. The peace that he secured for us wasn’t cheap, but costly. We shouldn’t expect any less. If we are the offending party, the cost may take the form of humbling ourselves, apologizing and making any necessary restitution. In other cases, we may have to listen to both sides and witness the mutual bitterness; or to have to offer reproof or rebuke and thus risk losing a friendship. Continue reading →